Mercedes Formula 1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff was "very positively surprised" about Kimi Antonelli's pace during the third practice session ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.
After Ferrari dominated the first and second practice sessions, Antonelli topped the timesheet in FP3 with a time of 1m12.720s, 0.327 seconds faster than Charles Leclerc in second.
"That was a good session for Kimi, fast. Now we just need to continue to build for qualifying," Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after the session. "Leclerc’s lap before he made a mistake in Turn 10 was there or thereabouts, so it’s still not going to be in the walk in the park but we are very positively surprised."
Antonelli's team-mate George Russell finished FP3 in fourth, 0.763 seconds off of the Italian's time.
"I think with George, you can never write him off," Wolff continued. "He’s going to look at the data, he still didn’t feel 100 per cent confident or comfortable in the car in the way that Kimi did, so I’m quite keen to see how the two are going to be in qualifying."
Russell enters the Monaco Grand Prix on the back of a disappointing Canadian Grand Prix. After starting from pole position and a tense battle with his team-mate, Russell retired from the lead with an issue with his Mercedes machinery.
While Wolff confirmed that the Brackley outfit had identified the issue, he admitted that they were still not 100% sure why it happened.
"We have identified the failure. So we know what it is but we are not 100% sure why it happened. But that's at least a containment," the team chief continued. "We are all over it on the engine side and I'm sure this is part of the learning to make it very robust."
Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix will take place at 4pm local time (3pm UK time) on Saturday 6 June.
Photos from Monaco GP - Saturday
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